Creativity and innovation: The elusive competitive advantage for technology-driven industries

Abstract

The relationship between an organization's technology and the effect it has on its infrastructure is receiving considerable attention from several research specialist that focus on organization theory. Most of the research is empirical, however some good theoretical work is starting to surface. Suggested approaches and methods for encouraging technological innovation and change are abundant in the literature. One approach called social innovation deals with public policy and regulations to enhance technological innovation at the macro-level [1-4]. Another approach at the macro-level deals with establishing the creative environment necessary for technological innovation and change at the national level [5-11]. Some suggestions are tax incentives for increased business investment, development of new energy sources, reduced government regulations, channelling of investments to industries with the greatest growth potential, and one article grappling with the ethics of it all. This is by no means all of the suggestions offered. However, at the micro-level some of the literature is very specialized to narrow areas of technology implementation [12,13]. These may be subjects describing how the computer can bridge a technology gap, while another explains the advantages of using operations research models to optimize the planning and execution of technology. The planning, implementation, and management of technology in a large corporate environment has spawned numerous articles and books [14-28]. Specific areas of interest from several of these references will be detailed further throughout this perspective on creativity, technology, and the management of technology. One very good research study did a review of seventy-five articles concerned with innovation characteristics as they related to the adoption and implementation of innovation [29,p.40]. They found that three of the innovation characteristics compatibility, relative advantage, and complexity had the most significant and consistent relationships to innovation adoption of the ten characteristics evaluated in their study. Compatibility and relative advantage were found to be positively related to adoption while complexity was negatively related. Another excellent research study evaluated the various aspects of environmental uncertainty and their impacts on innovativeness of new products and processes at fifty-four different organizations. The findings showed that perceived uncertainty in the areas of competition, customers, and government regulations have little or no influence on major process adoption [30,p.2]. However, these three areas